Maggie Beth
by turbomagnus
Summary: When Margaret suffers from a head injury, a secret two years in the keeping comes to light.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own MASH, not even on DVD... If I did, like many others, there wouldn't have been a goodbye kiss in GFA because they wouldn't be going seperate ways!

Author's Opening Notes: A word of warning... I am an unrepentant Hawkeye/Margaret fan and this story WILL reflect that.

* * *

"Maggie-Beth"  
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"

* * *

If he wasn't on-duty, he was there. He slept in a chair, when he slept. Colonel Potter had taken him off the duty roster for now, until Margaret was better or they needed Hawkeye back with no other option. It was the only thing the old soldier could think of that might help. He wouldn't say that Hawkeye was closer to Margaret or B.J., he was just as close to both of them in different ways.

Behind his desk, Potter sighed, if he kept dwelling on it, he'd be in as bad shape as the rest of the camp. With Margaret injured, Hawkeye wasn't in a joking mood. Without Hawkeye's jokes, there wasn't the same level of comfort around the camp. That lack of comfort and friendliness had become all too appearent after Klinger and B.J., of all people, had gotten into an argument. This whole thing was reminding Potter of the time the camp had that big bonfire, the days leading up to it, and if something didn't happen soon, the whole camp was going to ignite...

"Klinger, call Sidney Freedman, if he's got a few days, ask him to come up here."

* * *

"Guess I can't make fun of B.J. anymore, Margaret... At least he didn't hurt anyone..."

In Margaret's tent, Hawkeye was pouring out his soul in a way he rarely did...

"God, if I hadn't been in such a damn hurry, you wouldn't be like this. I could have slowed down or taken a different route, but I was supposed to be going for five days in Tokyo when we got back from the 8063rd and had to be an idiot... Ironic, huh? I nearly got you killed because I wanted to be in Tokyo and I never went, I'm still here. Dammit, what kind of doctor am I if I caused one of my best friends to spend the last week unconscious? C'mon, Margaret, wake up! Swear at me, call me 'Captain' like you used to, complain that it's not military for a man to be crying, anything!"

As if summoned by his words, Margaret's eyes fluttered slightly before easing open, but the words that came out of her mouth were unexpected by the dark-haired surgeon, "Ben?"

* * *

Author's Closing Notes: Yes, a short set-up chapter... Hopefully I'll be able to move things along better as I get the story going...


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own MASH, not even on DVD... If I did, like many others, there wouldn't have been a goodbye kiss in GFA because they wouldn't be going seperate ways!

Author's Opening Notes: The plot builds...

* * *

"Margaret?" Asking about the 'Ben' could wait until later.

"My head hurts..."

"Margaret, you've been out of it for a week," Hawkeye explained.

"That explains it," she muttered, lifting her hand to her head, then stopping halfway there.

"Ben..."

There was that 'Ben' again, He thought, why was she calling him 'Ben'?

"...Where's my ring?"

"What ring?"

She looked up at him in surprise and a little anger, "You know what ring! My wedding band, the one of your mother's you gave me when we were married!"

Hawkeye froze, his dad had sent his and Hawkeye's mother's wedding rings to Hawkeye, but they were both still tucked away in his footlocker. If he gave his mother's ring to anyone, it would probably BE Margaret, but he hadn't... And she was saying they were married and calling him 'Ben'.

With a composure he didn't know he had at the moment, Hawkeye stood up and said softly, "Excuse me."

As soon as he stepped out of Margaret's tent and the door was closed, he ran to Colonel Potter's office, past Klinger and straight inside.

"Colonel, tell Klinger to call Sidney!"

At almost the same time Hawkeye was saying the psychiatrist's name, Potter was saying it too.

"- is already on his way."

Hawkeye paused, then took a step back, "Margaret thinks we're married, you're pulling Radar's stunt, if Charles starts trying to get a section eight, I'm out of here."

The colonel turned, got out a bottle of whiskey, then turned back to Hawkeye, "Sounds like you need..."

Then it hit him, "Margaret thinks you're WHAT!"

* * *

Author's Closing Notes: Hopefully, I'm succeeding in maintaining the feel of the characters, if not, please tell me...


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own MASH, not even on DVD... If I did, like many others, there wouldn't have been a goodbye kiss in GFA because they wouldn't be going seperate ways!

Author's Opening Notes: And now we begin to see the differences between Margaret's dream life and real life take shape...

* * *

To Margaret, they were married, they shared the same bed. As far as Hawkeye knew, though, they never had, not even in that abandoned hut. They had both wanted to that night, but she was still married to Donald, and he simply did not bend on his rule; 'Ring on her hand, hands off.'

It had taken some time, but he had finally convinced her, as a doctor, that they shouldn't be doing anything in the shape she was in. She assumed he meant having been unconscious for a week, but he knew that by 'the shape she was in' he meant her memory, or lack thereof. But he was willing to stay with her, which was why he was in a chair in her tent - again. Somewhere around the hundreth patrol of the guard out in the compound, Hawkeye had finally decided he couldn't sleep, so he had begun looking around for something to read.

Which was when he had found Margaret's diary...

What he read inside changed everything he had 'known' since coming to Korea...

* * *

-Flashback, Christmas time, 1950, Real Life-

He'd kissed her! That- That- That COMPLETELY UNmilitary CAPTAIN had KISSED HER!

But that wasn't what was irking Major Margaret Houlihan, no, what was bothering her wasn't that Captain Benjamin Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce had kissed her...

It was that she had liked it. Not only had she liked it, but she had returned it.

"Why?" Margaret asked to her empty tent later, when she had recovered from the kiss, "Why?"

She wasn't asking why he had kissed her, she knew that - to annoy her and Major Burns, she was asking why she had kissed him back... And she didn't like the answers she was coming up with.

/He's the only person in camp who not only won't let you browbeat him, but fights back./

"Which just proves he has no respect for authority," she countered.

/He's got a great sense of humor./

"He can't take anything seriously."

/He's an excellent surgeon./

"He can't even be serious in OR!"

/He stands up for his beliefs./

"He's stubborn!"

/He goes out of his way to help anyone who needs it./

Margaret didn't have a response to that one.

/And he's got a cute body./

"Where the hell did that come from?"

With a groan, Margaret dropped onto her cot and fell asleep...

* * *

Author's Closing Notes: I'm probably gonna get blasted by someone for claiming that nothing happened in the hut, but Hawkeye refused to shoot a gun at anyone when they were trying to kill him and Colonel Potter, so I don't think an abandoned hut and a lot of shelling would cause him to break one of his own personal rules.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own MASH, not even on DVD... If I did, like many others, there wouldn't have been a goodbye kiss in GFA because they wouldn't be going seperate ways!

Author's Opening Notes: I saw MASH (the movie) the other day. Am I the only one who, being used to Alan Alda's Hawkeye, was a bit disappointed in the Hawkeye played by Donald Sutherland?

* * *

-Present time, 1953-

After he first began to read, it took Hawkeye a minute to realize that this diary wasn't about what had happened over the years, but what could have happened. What, to Margaret, did happen...

'Last night, I had a very... I had a dream about yesterday, about Hawkeye Pierce...

About us.'

* * *

-Christmas time, 1950, Dream Life-

Major Burns was on Post-Op duty and Captain McIntyre was... probably chasing her nurses, knowing him... But that didn't make what she was about to do any easier on her. She gave three sharp raps on the door to the Swamp.

"Come in."

Margaret quickly entered the Swamp and shut the door before turning to face Hawkeye.

"Margaret, what an unexpected surprise. Frank isn't here right now, but I'll tell him you stopped by."

"I'm not here to see Major Burns, Pierce... Hawkeye, we need to talk."

The major referring to him by his preferred nickname rather than rank or 'Pierce' caused Hawkeye to raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

"What do we need to talk about?"

The sight of him in his robe was driving her mad, but not the way it used to...

"About earlier..."

She took a step forward, the scent of him, combined with the privacy of the tent was making her weak in the knees...

"About this."

Surprising Hawkeye even more than her use of his nickname, Margaret wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss like they had shared earlier, pulling him down toward his cot...

* * *

-Present time, 1953-

For one of the few times in his mostly shameless life, Hawkeye Pierce blushed at what he read. She had dreamed that... about him... And he thought he had wild dreams.

* * *

-Christmas time, 1950, Dream Life-

The next morning, two bodies stirred in the Swamp, and only one of them was a Swamp Rat. The only reason there was any stirring at all was because of the racket from outside...

"She's gone! Marga-Major Houlihan is missing!"

"Calm down, Frank, she probably just went to take a shower."

"She's gone! She's not in her tent or the showers!"

"Geez, Frank, calm down, I'm sure she's somewhere in the camp," Without any warning, Trapper opened the door to the Swamp, "Uhh, Frank, I think we found her."

Somehow, the blanket-covered duo found the decency to blush under Trapper's scrutiny.

With a typically-Frank cry of "Pierce, you brute!" Frank came bumbling into the Swamp, "Margaret, my darling, I'll save you from this DEGENERATE!"

"Is he always like this?" Hawkeye asked

"No, usually he's worse," came the muttered response from the woman with him.

Outside, the majority of the camp had gathered around, watching the silent-struck Trapper, babbling Frank, and now appearantly intimate Hawkeye and Margaret. Those four, however, never noticed them.

"You were right, Frank," Margaret said in a manner more reminenscient of Hawkeye, "He is a beast."

"Margaret, how could you sleep with this... this... THIS?"

"Well, when we finally fell asleep it was rather easy," Hawkeye added.

"Better him than you... FERRET FACE!"

At Margaret's words, the impromtu audience burst into light applause. Light only because they didn't want to ruin what was going on.

"What's he got that I haven't got?"

Margaret thought of when Hawkeye had kissed her, then of when she had kissed Hawkeye, and of when they had kissed each other... then she thought of the times she had kissed Frank and almost shuddered.

"Lips!"

In the real world, those words would return to Margaret's mind in a similar situation, with a similar response...

"Lips aren't everything!"

Frank moved toward the cot with intentions unknown, and Margaret lashed out with a foot catching him in a delicate place and finally shaking Trapper from his reverie as Frank dropped to the floor and passed out from shock and pain.

"Boy, Hawk, I sure hope you know what you're getting into..." Then the Boston-native turned to go tell Henry what had happened.

"Yeah," Hawkeye whispered, "Probably the best thing in my life."

At the front of the crowd Klinger shook his head and reached into the tent to grab Frank by his ankles and drag him out.

"Somebody shut that door, please?" The Lebanese Corporal asked.

One of the nurses commented that she'd do it, then the whole staff could meet over at Rosie's to celebrate Hawkeye's new status, because the new couple would be fools if either let the other go...

* * *

-Present time, 1953-

Keeping it quiet so as not to wake her, Hawkeye laughed at Margaret's dream.

"I always knew she didn't like Frank as much as she let on..."

Turning the page, Hawkeye paused, then gulped at the sight of one of the words on the page, "Tuttle..."

* * *

-1951, Real Life-

Contrary to the fact that most people would think of her as the 'Dumb Blonde', Margaret was actually quite intelligent...

Smart enough to know General Clayton's voice from Captain Pierce's and notice that the appearance of 'Captain Tuttle' in his personnel file seemed to be almost too perfectly... 'her.' Normally she'd have came down on them as soon as she had found out, but they weren't showing any signs of the money or any wrong-doing - beyond tricking the camp, which, she admitted, they did most of the time anyway - and she hadn't been feeling the same need to do so, at least, not since Christmas...

By the end of it all, the only thing about it that she thought was hard to believe was the 'death' of 'Captain Jonathan Tuttle'.

Jumped from a helicopter without a parachute, indeed.

* * *

-Present time, 1953-

After finding out that she had known, Hawkeye blinked a couple times, then turned to look at Margaret.

"Two, almost three years we've been stuck together in this cesspool and still she somehow manages to surprise me..."

Even quieter, Hawkeye admitted to himself, "God, I love her..."

* * *

Author's Closing Notes: Bear with me, they're getting longer... And more interesting.


End file.
